Thursday, September 30, 2010

Keeping up with the going on holiday theme: Sweet goodbyes. This song is by a Dutch band (Krezip) whom I only discovered this year after they had already broken up in 2009. I heard this song on the car radio several times within a few weeks recently and fell in love with it. Great video as well.Art Rock score: 8/10 (great song, I'd put it on my MP3 player)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Another piece of evidence for the versatility of my Flickr friend aftab. This study is deceptively simple, but expertly done. I love the pose, especially the one foot lifted off partially, and the overall glow.

The topic for this post is a slightly controversial one, because it is less intuitive. The rule of odds states that images are more visually appealing when there is an odd number of subjects (1-3-5-etc). Of course, many shots of a couple seem to break this rule immediately, but this needs a bit more thinking. Often couples are photographed in an intimate way, touching one another, effectively becoming one combined subject ("two become one" as the Spice Girls would sing). And indeed, when I take pictures of two colleagues, where that physical contact is obviously lacking, I tend to be far less satisfied with the results. This rule holds for persons, animals, objects... and of course is limited to small numbers: no-one will notice whether your sea shells shot has 123 or 124 of them in it. As an illustration, my shot Three of a kind. This shot would be less pleasing with just two of the peaks.

Monday, September 27, 2010

This shot is by the latest addition to my select group of Flickr friends, and like barbera (previous post in this topic), already one of the most impressive: ebergcanada. Wonderful abstraction of a fence with stunning colours.

Yesterday was not only my wife's birthday, but also the day one of our favourite painters died, in 1914. aged 27: August Macke. This was his final creation, depicting the gloomy mood of a country going to war, a war that would claim his life just weeks later. More on Macke in the wikipedia article linked to below.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

One of the latest additions to my select group of Flickr friends, and one of the most impressive: barbera. The moment I came across this beauty in the list of faves of one of my other friends, I fell in love with it. Fascinating combination of colours and face image. An inspiring piece of art.

Friday, September 24, 2010

The most recent model shoot by my Flickr friend andy_57 is as impressive as the previous ones. Model Hannelore poses in a series of atmospheric shots as a jazz crooner of days gone by - all shots are great, but this one truly stands out. She is a natural model, with great props and the expert lighting that I have come to expect of Andy. Exquisite.

A band I don't know, but I came across this album at the progressive rock archives site, and took an instant liking to its cover. Votum is a prog metal band from Poland, and this is their debut album from 2009, which received good reviews. The cover design reminds me of movie posters in some way.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

This fabulous abstract may well be the best shot I have seen so far of my Flickr friend Caecilia Metella - and that's against pretty stiff competition in her stream. One of those shots that you can easily picture hanging in a modern art museum.

At the offical start of autumn, an appropriate movie poster. This McGee movie dates back to 2004, and I love the poster design, very artistic. And of course, the fact that it is set in Paris, where we will be next week, is a nice bonus.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A recent creation by my wife, which she turned into a greeting card for the occasion of the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival. To all readers who celebrate this, I wish you all the best 0n this festive day as well.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Always in the shadow of bands like Golden Earring and Focus, this excellent Dutch progressive rock group around singer Jerney Kaagman never got the international recognition they deserved. Apart from their outstanding albums, they also scored a string of top five hits in Holland, and few of these were better than their 1973 smash hit Maybe tomorrow maybe tonight.Art Rock score: 8/10 (great song, I'd put it on my MP3 player)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

My Flickr friend macaz1977 is one of the pioneers of the "minimalism on white" movement, and he keeps on turning out the most beautiful shots in this style. Even better when seen on a white background, as on Flickr, when the borders between photograph and background completely disappear to a stunning effect.

My Flickr friend Alex Verweij has not featured often in my blog, but here he is once more. Like me, he resides in Almere, and unlike me he took his camera to the recent Almere culture night and came back with fantastic laser light show shots like this one. Surreal, like a SF movie.

Another beautiful image by my dear Flickr friend aftab, a treat of pastel softness. As so often, he added a few thought provoking lines to go with the image: "Can you feel the pain of a mother who faces the impending death of her child? Can you even try to describe it? Words fail. Only prayer remains."

Friday, September 17, 2010

One of my favourite shots of our recent two day trip to Paris - and getting a lot of positive reactions on Flickr as well. This one was taken whilst waiting for my wife and her business associate outside the Louis Vuitton shop near the Champs Elysees. I had time, a camera, and a mood to experiment with depth of field.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

It's only a few months since my Flickr friend sannesu embarked on the theme of abstracts, and look where she is now. The best shot in her stream so far, an exquisite delicate abstract of unparalleled beauty. And a deserved hit on Flickr Explore, where it made it to the top 50.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

In Imaginary Movies I will be posting some fake movie posters I created (including a fake review), with two recurring themes: the title is based on a pop/rock song, and the image is from my Flickr stream. This one takes a Lemming song in combination with my shot Scary.

The soul of Lucifera, the devil's daughter, gets caught in a wooden doll - it sounds like a cheap Chuckie rip-off. On the contrary, this is the best horror movie of the century so far. Of course, the computer generated images are top notch, and the acting and direction excellent, but what makes this such an outstanding film is the intelligent script and the perfect visualization. The apocalyptic nightmare visions of the main characters is frighteningly realistic and the movie's climax will haunt you for days after you have left the cinema. This is beyond strongly recommended, it is essential viewing whether you like the genre or not.

Monday, September 13, 2010

One of the best bands of the early eighties - and always good for great covers as well. Japan's Visions of China made little impact on the charts world-wide, but it remains one of my all-time favourite songs. Very classy cover, using a less conventional but very effective way of cropping. More about Japan on the linked wikipedia page.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Appearing in my blog at a frequency that comes close to aftab is my Flickr friend Caecilia Metella. She excels in abstract shots like this, and even in her stream, this sculpture shot stands out as one of the best. The lighting, the curves, the sky - magnificent.

Another and very different shot by my Flickr friend aftab: a souvenir from his recent Alaska holiday. This is a nature cliche that we all to hope see one day: a bear catching a salmon. He not only saw it, but had a camera at hand and registered the scene to perfection.

An almost surreal nature shot by my Flickr friend jenny downing. The rainbow colours in the diagonal line, combined with that silvery bokeh against the luscious green background... perfection. Surely one of her best.

The photo stream of my Flickr friend word artist is extremely varied, but always with common denominators in perfect dof and thoughtful composition. His recent series of images of Croation model Nea Dune is excellent, and this one stands out for me as the best. The lighting, the implied movement, the dream-like quality.... simply beautiful.

A new name in my blog. I encountered this wonderful image of fellow Flickrite jensen. pernille in the Flickr group Bitches Brew, a collection of shots aiming for a high degree of originality. The interplay of stairs, shadows and wall is simply amazing.

The Blogger

About me:Dutchman, married to a beautiful and highly talented artist from Shanghai. Although my education (PhD chemistry) is very much associated with the left side of the brain, I like to use my right side for my hobbies: music, art, photography.

About this blog:I started this blog in August 2006, just wanting to share what I considered interesting pieces of visual art and music. I suffered from blogging blues for most of 2008, but making a fresh start in October of that year has done wonders for my inspiration.In case you did not notice, most posts end with a small symbol... just click that for the relevant link.All pictures in my blog are hosted on blogger - if some do not show up (the red cross syndrome) it is a blogger hiccup. Right click and selecting "show picture" should do the trick.

About the reconstruction:

End March 2017 I converted thousands of posts to draft, in order to sort out potential copyright issues. Many of these have been restored in the course of the year.

Links of interest

Reactions

Reactions: please send an email to artrock2006@gmail.com or leave a comment on FaceBook.

Copyright issues?

Most of the images used in this blog are either mine, or they are used with explicit permission of the creators, or they are in the public domain. Album cover and movie poster images are sourced on the internet and they are considered fair use for discussion at a non-profit blog.

The magnifying glass based images that occur once in a while have been put in place to show images at thumbnail size, this being considered fair use (link).

If you still find a picture on this blog that you are the copyright owner of, and object against the use, please drop me an email and I will remove it.